Presently much effort is being expanded to find and develop sources of inexpensive high quality protein. One such source is single cell protein derived from single cell organisms such as bacteria, yeast, fungi and algae, which typically are available from production wastes of brewing, distilling and fermentation processes and which can be grown on such diverse substrates as, e.g., sewage, petroleum, garbage, paper, dairy and food industry wastes. Major costs in the recovery of single cell protein from these and other growth environments is the separation or concentration first, of the single cell organisms from the fluid medium in which they are grown and second, the subsequent separation of the single cell protein from unusable portions of the cell. Conventional separation techniques such as centrifugation, filtration and flocculation-sedimentation have met with indifferent success solving these two problems. In each of these techniques the single cell organisms are first concentrated in the filter or centrifuge and then removed from there for subsequent extraction of useful protein. A second filtration or centrifugation is then necessary to separate the useable protein from the unuseable portions of the cells. More specifically the filtration technique suffers from rapid filter clogging necessitating frequent filter cleanings and replacements. Centrifugation is a slow process requiring complex equipment which must be carefully adjusted for optimum production and which requires large power inputs. Flocculation-sedimentation requires the addition of flocculant chemicals which may be toxic and difficult subsequently to separate from the single cell organisms or useful protein. This technique also results in large volumes of water being recovered with the single cell organisms or the useful protein which are only eliminated at additional expense.